I was more thinking about people who'd emerged in recent yers, rather than people from 25 odd years ago who hadn't thrown in the towel yet. Might as well say Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and Jarvis Cocker are the best lyricists of the past few years, despite not having done anything like their best work.

1968 came too early for some, all the trendies feeling empowered
1976 was a passage of rites, but we blossomed, we weren’t deflowered
1984? Yeah, there were a few good people who wouldn’t drown in a Pina Colada sea
1997? “Great, good fantastic Tony”, and Eurovision victory

But was it something he said?
Things only got better in the “funky” people carrier that was serenading you in the head

They told the fortysomethings they’d be wild and free again
How many years of hurt had passed since way back then?
But how does Champagne Charlie spark the revival
Of what they used to know and what used to be vital?

Remember that song playing on the radio, “best footy anthem in the world ever”
It’ll take you to heaven in a pint of Bombardier, but isn’t someone else saying “Gotcha?”
We’ll never mind, we’ll come straight from behind like we did against the Armada
But you’ll never win this war like your forefathers did, there ain’t no Nelson or Magna Carta

But was it something that night?
Three Lions on a shirt rubs me well into the dirt and flirt with ideas we’re always right
(And would Churchill ever appear in a pizza ad?)

Next year Teflon man makes someone’s dreams come true in Tickertape
Doesn’t it remind you slightly of something from the pages of “Sugar Ape?”
But hey, they were sure this bloke had swing and style to employ
Like a kid let loose in a sweet shop who’s free to play with all these new toys

But what if you’re one of the boys
Who’s got the apparatus but can’t do the experiment because your soul’s been long-term unemployed?

And now the fortysomethings are fainting on the telephone
Someone you never knew met their end on the River Seine
The Palace walls are paved with old punks and crocodile tears
Show your real face – this country just makes you the sad Beefeaters
Of this shiny new country you fear
This shiny new country you fear

Their cupboard contained seven types of pasta
FIFA Road to World Cup and Encarta
Winner Tacos, Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food
A new 4x4 not driven north of Watford
Girl power lime green T-shirts on your daughter
But her “cute” pencil case said “Nutty Tart”, yeah
Five years later, she’s the “Kappa Slapper”
Wife’s run out of ideas, don’t want to know her
Son’s failing exams but he don’t care
Gotta crash ‘n’ burn when you’re going nowhere
Wearing clothes, oh-so-chic misspelt F-words
And now David Hasselhoff’s his Geoff Hurst
Got digital TV, the latest rom-com
Hugh and Julia in their London toytown
Hamza, Izzadeen? Just turn the volume down
And Daddy looked for a ‘niche career’
Maybe a super freelance interweb designer
But everyone else line danced or went to ‘gastropubs’
Smalltown boys made good don’t come from yoga clubs
Mum logged into Friends Reunited
“Just catching up, a quick chat, don’t get too excited”
And son’s home unexpectedly early
Hears her scream “I wish my husband was this dirty”
Opens the door, a casual married man
Who takes away the pain of her oppression
Of a country and a town that lost its passion
Getting bum-faced, clenching its fist with no direction
Reminds me of a few decades way back when
A hot hot heatwave to break all the tension
When the call centres closed, no explanation
Getting beat up, blown up at the station

Before I spoke in riddles, I was worried someone would hear me
Now I know that no one really listens so I will just speak clearly
I don't have private thoughts, just a lyrical worksheet
For mangling my observations on the meter and the beat
And in the process of it, on every line
Sooner or later I'll have to change the meaning to fit the rhyme

But back in the skylight all of the stars
Turn into sound and then they shout down at me
Though they are far away, they shout so loudly
I think I may know what they're saying to me
It's on the tip of my ear; it's almost palpable!
I have to listen closely and get my mind around it!
And when I understand it I'll just transcribe it
This time when I write it down I'll do it faithfully
I won't try to rhyme it

but I just realised I wrote ‘these guys’ and indeed noticed (eugh) that none of them are women, so obviously Tune-Yards and Janelle Monae and Micachu and Anaïs Mitchell and Gazelle Twin and then like PJ Harvey and Joanna Newsom and Cat Power and OMGz I’M A MONSTER ETC.

Because too often, "good lyrics" are snobbishly viewed as the most poetic, wordy and complex examples (and much of these are very good). But you can read a book/poem if you want that, good lyrics just have to fit the feel of the music well with out moving into cliche. As such, there are loads around. One lyricist I particularly like is Wayne Coyne.

Standing at the punch table swallowing punch
can't pay attention to the sound of anyone
a little more stupid, a little more scared
every minute more unprepared

I made a mistake in my life today
everything I love gets lost in drawers
I want to start over, I want to be winning
way out of sync from the beginning

I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I'm very, very frightening
I'll overdo it

Looking for somewhere to stand and stay
I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away
Can I get a minute of not being nervous
and not thinking of my dick
My leg is sparkles, my leg is pins
I better get my shit together, better gather my shit in
You could drive a car through my head in five minutes
from one side of it to the other

I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I'm very, very frightening
I'll overdo it

You know I dreamed about you
for twenty-nine years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for
for twenty-nine years

You know I dreamed about you
for twenty-nine years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for
for twenty-nine years

''Oh we're so disarming darling, everything we did believe
is diving diving diving diving off the balcony
Tired and wired we ruin too easy
sleep in our clothes and wait for winter to leave''

''I wake up without warning and go flying around the house
In my sauvignon fierce, freaking out
Take a forty-five minute shower and kiss the mirror
And say, look at me
Baby, we'll be fine
All we gotta do is be brave and be kind''

his lyrics don't translate that well to paper (struggling to find one to quote here), it's all about how he delivers them, his flow and accents. He's pretty brilliant at describing pretty realistic seeming nights out and the kind of everyday problems young people have that always seem much bigger than they actually are.

Also, this has got to be one of my favourite opening verses to a song ever :D

''Hate people who think that life is a drama,
making in jokes about Americana,
amusing myself is worth it for the karma,
Obama sounds like Osama to me''

'So I guess by now we've established, everything is inherently worthless, and there's nothing in this universe with any kind of objective purpose' is such a great opener - self-deprecating & resonant at the same time.

Nothing beats 'The one I can stand up for is resting supine on the ground' though.

Wouldn't Women Be Sweet:
"I met you in a bar in 2003
We started going Out immediately
I thought it would be fun, I thought it would be easy
Didn't realise you were a maniac..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoOemOloACU

The devil and John Berryman
Took a walk together.
They ended up on Washington
Talking to the river.
He said 'I've surrounded myself with doctors
And deep thinkers.
But big heads with soft bodies
Make for lousy lovers'
There was that night that we thought John Berryman could fly.
But he didn't
So he died.
She said 'You're pretty good with words
But words won't save your life'
And they didn't.
So he died.

He was drunk and exhausted but he was critically acclaimed and respected.
He loved the Golden Gophers but he hated all the drawn out winters.
He likes the warm feeling but he's tired of all the dehydration
Most nights were kind of fuzzy
But that last night he had total retention.

These Twin Cities kisses
Sound like clicks and hisses.
We all tumbled down and
Drowned in the Mississippi River.

We scrounge around for sustenance
We mostly eat in the back half of the theaters
We spent a few years nodding off in matinees
High as hell and shivering and smashed
We were hoping for an action adventure
Something loud that we could feel thru all the Feminax
After the movie we got off the ground
Got in your car and crawled around in Lowertown

Laura you were the saddest song in the shape of a woman. I thought you were beautiful,but I wept with your movements. I hope you are laughing now from that place of the carpet where we shared a sleeping bag, in your sisters apartment. Oh how she would worry so, you know,I was just a stranger. But she asked me to care for you. That is what she did and I went and betrayed her. But do you know we are in high demand, Laura, us people who suffer? Because we don't take to arguing and we are quick to surrender. Well, I think I would call tonight if I still had your number. Your thoughts have always laid close to mine. We were both skipping supper.

But you should never be embarrassed by your trouble with living.
Because it is the ones with the sorest throats, Laura, who have done the most singing.

Near a sea of pianos
There were waves of chords
That crashed against the shore
In one huge and useless roar
And there were girls bringing water
Like a dream they came
To cure the fever of my brain
And soothe my burning throat
And they made me a necklace
Hanging beads of sweat
On a string of my regrets
And placed it around my neck
And they were singing
"Don’t you do what you’ve wanted to
Yeah, don’t destroy yourself
Like those cowards do
And maybe the sun keeps coming up
Because it has gotten used to you
And your constant need for proof

There's a dream in my brain that just won't go away.
It's been stuck there since it came a few nights ago..
I'm standing on a bridge in the town where I lived as a kid with my mom and my brothers. And then the bridge disappears and I'm standing on air with nothing holding me. And I hang like a star, fucking glow in the dark, For all the starving eyes to see--like the ones we've wished on. But now I'm confused.
Is this death really you? And do these dreams have any meaning?
No.
No, I think it's more like a ghost that's been following us both. Something vague that we're not seeing..

In a terraced house in Rubery haunts
The ghost of something awful
A crushing dark and normal
Like the night we made yr parents divorce
Days spent playing rebels
Pushing our own funerals forwards, forwards

I almost fucked you on the couch in the lounge
Teenagers are useless
Cause a brittle Christmas
And the glass shards sparkle sharp in the snow
Outside for the romance
Inside for the lust and I want you, want you
(Want you, want you)
I want you, want you
(Want you, want you)

As the sun sinks into a sparkling sea, it looks like a lightship out of reach
There are more things we should have left on the beach
So reverse the clocks and invert the maps
We'll watch the sun retrace it's path
Those nights you say you say you want yr old life back

Well lets go get it.

Glitched inside the machinery, the chance to see behind the scenes
The plead between the choices that we make
And she called us explorers

And we looked out I guess
Found shelter in the storm
Caught between the clouds
And we saw god i'm sure

As favours for the sleepless thoughts
We'll go house hunting for the other oaths
We'll pick a cosy home by the beach
We'd watch the winter walk and the summer bleach
And sing along to the old songs

Hey, 2009, that was always almost enough.

And we looked out I guess
Found shelter in the storm
Caught between the clouds
And we saw god i'm sure

Summer didn't stick around
to see the ship it launched go down
Summer didn't stick around
to see the ship it launched go down
without a trace

Time waits for no one
Time stands still for no one
i was only 19
caught in a dream
telling anyone who listened
i got something
That no one else has
that no one else can see but me

Winter wouldn't go away
The Hudson River a skating rink
Winter hung around for centuries
the cold was creeping from within our bones
Occupied our souls

Time waits for no one
Time stands still for no one
i was only 19
caught in a dream
telling anyone who listened
i got something
That no one else has
that no one else can see but me

That no one else has
that no one else believes
That no one else can see

Winter in my bones
the old enemy
Listen to seashells
they know everything
Bloodlines splintering
hurricanes coming
Dream of emptiness
through the centuries
a white noise frenzy
Watch the summer rain
dissapear again
I was only nineteen
caught in a dream

You look mean in green and in red you're so pleasin'
But they're so last season
And Alexa said it would be suicide
You may as well just commit suicide
Guaranteed haute corpse-ture

Don't get shirty, I'm only teasin'
But that shirt is tantamount to fashion treason
Apparently
You must approach fashion transparently
Am I up to speed? I'm not sure...

The high street is your cote d'or
Topman your independent record store
You have no idea that Sonic Youth is a band
You think The Ramones is a clothing brand

Dress for success and then jostle for position
Yeah I look a mess but I'm a struggling musician
You all must look the same and thus the same you must all listen
Preaching to the Conversed, my impossible mission

Don't get angry I'm only joking
But what's the point in voting
When you don't know what you're voting for?
Does no-one read the paper any more?
Read the paper?!? What could be duller?

Obama is your new Che Guevara
Scouting For Girls are your new Nirvana
You've written FREE TIBET on the back of your hand
But you think that Tibet is a part of Iran
You think the Dalai Lama is the King of Japan

Yes, I confess, that I'm no great politician
But at least I possess a process approaching cognition
You all must think the same and thus the same you must all listen
Preaching to the Conversed, my impossible mission

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and I feel like I'm beaten
So take me for a Big Mac so I can taste the defeat
And now we are the same and the same we will listen
Preaching to the Conversed, my impossible mission

And it makes you appreciate that first album. I don't think you should be able to hear it until you've been going out with your mates for at least six months. The little things, like the button combination to unlock old Nokias, is just as pedestrian as it as an observation everyone goes "oh shit, I've noticed that as well."

It is such a good record, and half because of the lyrics. And I don't think there are many albums that genuinely are like that.

If it's like not sacrilege to bridge the two, Capture/Release by The Rakes is the same, but not as good (but still, very good)l

''M-m-moral compass all batshit
Spinning in the shadows of immoral magnets
Are we supporting the artist or enabling the addict
I mean, I guess it matters to me
I wish it mattered to you
How a thousand virtues
Kick the same bucket like chinatown turtles''

I love my ancestors but not ritually
I don't blame them or praise them for anything that they passed along to me

Sounds like a deceptively simple line, which is the work of the best lyrics, but coupled with the conviction in his voice it comes across as both a great mantra and a kind of fuck you to self-pity, and really plain and open at the same time...I dunno but that's probably my favourite moment of any song ever; totally transcendent!

FOX: Provisionally 'I' practically alive mistook signs for signified and so since have often tried to run them off a cliff like Gadarene swine and tied my thought-ropes in anchor bends wondering whether we were someone better then, or maybe just better able to pretend (and what better means to our inevitable end!)

BEAR: No, I don't know if I know, though some with certainty insist 'no certainty exists' well I'm certain enough of this: In the past 14 years, there's only one girl I've kissed in the blistering heat of the Asbury pier we sat quiet as monks on the Ferris wheel until looking down at the waltzer and out at the sea I asked her 'do you ever have that recurring fantasy where you push little kids from the tops of the rides?' She shook her head no I said 'Oh, neither do I' and with my grandmother's ring I went down on one knee and the subsequent catastrophe has since haunted me like a fiberglass ghost in the attic my inconveniently selective memory as provisionally 'You' mercifully withdrew all the bearing points we thought we knew day's run day's set plot our compass shot we sailed waywardly on singing our midnight archer songs until well past dawn it's still dark on the deck of our boats haphazardly blown broken bows our aimless arrow-words don't mean a thing so by now I think it's pretty obvious that there's no God and there's definitely a God

FOX: I dreamt of the rocks on the Asbury dunes, and that you jumped from the top of the Log Flume, and they gather like wolves on the boardwalk below and they're howling for answers no wolf can know - I charged at the waves with a glass in my hand, and was tossed like a ball at the bottle stand & landed beside your remains on the stones where your cold fingers wrapped round my ankle bone while maybe ten feet away was a star thousands of times the size of our sun exploding like tiny balloons you'd throw darts at

BEAR: I slept until our chest was full of yarn we spun from Shetland wool in socks from where the Dorset grows sheared & scoured hours before the rooster crows

FOX: The price of German silver fell threw disused thalers down the superstition well

've felt uncomfortable since the day that I was born
Since the day I glimpsed the black abyss in your eyes
There's no way you could make all of this shit up on your own
It could only come from the mastermind with eyes

I can't believe that I've considered taking my own life
Cos I believed the lies about me were the truth
It will be magic to watch your transformation when you realise that you've been had
It's enough to make a guy like me feel sad

Cos you tell me that
Jesus
He hates fruit loops, son,
We told you that when you were young
Or pretty much anything you want him to
Like sitcoms, pedophiles and kangaroos
Morons who cut and line
Three-bean salad and parking fines
And when we win this war on society
I hope your blind eyes will be opened and you'll see

The arrogance it takes to walk around in the world the way you do
It turns my brain to jelly every time
The rage and fear I'm feeling have begun to make me sick
And I think that I might be about to commit a crime

And you tell me that
Jesus
He hates homos son
We told you that when you were young
Or pretty much anything you want him to
Like coco puffs, red cars and jews
Postal clerks who waste your time
Weight loss shakes, and the local news
And when we win the war on society
I hope your blind eyes will be opened and you'll see

Cos Jesus,
He hates faggots, son
We told you that when you were young
Or pretty much anyone you want him to
Like niggers, spicks, redskins and kikes
Men who cannot tame their wives
Weaklings, cowards, and bald dikes,
And when we win the war on society
I hope your blind eyes will be opened and you'll see

i'd say is one of the most inventive and talented lyricists out there these days
obviously his delivery and the production kinda undermine him but it really comes across when reading along (which i know makes it kinda clinical/less 'enjoyable')
but in terms of hip hop and just modern music in general he's pretty original.